UEFA wants to end the leagues and dedicate August to the Champions League. The return of football is an important social incentive

The Champions makes its August

photo_camera REUTERS/YVES HERMAN - UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin
#PlayPlayAndPlay

A titanic videoconference from its Swiss headquarters was used by UEFA to dictate its duties to the national leagues. The order is clear: the championships must be finished. It wasn't by chance that Slovenia's Aleksander Ceferin became president of UEFA. Educated among lawyers and dedicated to the management of football clubs, he knows more about law firms than about the changing rooms. He looks at the horizon and understands that the pandemic will be a bad nightmare, that the world will be activated again and that the break of a few months cannot alter a competition that is already threatened by a competition in the shade. 

# TheNetherlandsVeryLow

Holland have ended their competition. Holland ceased to be the Holland on 1 January 2020. That's just one region of the Netherlands, which is what it should be called. The Eredivise-which is what their football league should be called-has closed definitively with 26 of 34 matches played and with Ajax, Az Alkmaar and Feyenord in the top three, the first two playing in the Champions League qualifiers and the third in the Europa League. UEFA doesn't want any guests in its Champions League in the 2020-2021 season and has already communicated to the federations that it needs sporting merits to participate in its competition. Between football and their lack of solidarity in Europe with the coronavirus, they have few friends left. 

#GreatAugust

August will finally be a serious football month. No more bad preseason in the United States, or the beatings in late-night derbies. Ceferin's plan includes devoting August to playing the Champions League. A whole month to finish the four matches in the round of sixteen, play eight quarter-final matches, four semi-final matches and the grand final in Istanbul. In total, 17 matches in 30 days. 

#GoodIdea

The idea is supported by the big clubs. The physical level is very important once the players have definitely lost the rhythm. The domestic competition would serve them to compete again in June and July and thus reach the Champions League in August. There is a lot at stake to give up the season. It remains to be seen if they will accept that Real Madrid will play in the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium in the return match against Manchester City. A safe place for the public because there is less capacity, for the players because they could concentrate on Valdebebas and for the works at the Bernabeu that could continue without crowds. 

#PeaceAndDecrees

In Spain, the usual civil wars are in step with UEFA. Tebas and Rubiales sign a ceasefire in the CSD by the imposition of Irene Lozano who wisely wants Spain to stop making an international fool of itself. Pedro Sánchez has enough with the masks, the hoaxes and the censorship. Besides, one of the last royal decrees had a gift, like getting Iglesias into the CNI, but to praise Rubiales and compromise Tebas. The decree says that the RFEF can exploit the rights of the 2º B football, the feminine football, the futsal and the sport federations with less weight through the foundation Spain Global Sport. In other words, more money for the RFEF, which takes control of futsal definitively and leaves LaLiga Sport TV, a LaLiga channel, without content to give visibility to these sports with less influence. A perfect pincer to Tebas who had to give in to be able to finish the Spanish football.  

#OurFootball

Ceferin adjusted everything very much in the video conference with the federations. He talked about the financial distribution, the rights for the transfer of players to the clubs and sent the European Women's Championship to 2022. Everyone on planet football is happy. A sport that is part of the uniqueness of many countries in Europe. It sets habits and schedules. It gives a task to those who like it and an excuse to those who don't. A spectacle used by politicians to calm the people. The most important of the least important that we now care very much about is that it returns.

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